Comments on our chicken Plan?

We discovered this site a couple of days ago and this is our first post. Both my wife and I have experienced having chickens as kids. Now as we are getting ready to retire and move to property that has few acres we want to have chickens again. My wife enjoys crafts, like painting Ukranian eggs, so she needs some white eggs for that, and would also like tinted eggs. I like eating most any eggs, but prefer brown.

We have some fenced pasture, and also have Llama's. We want chickens that like foraging on their own, and that tend towards being friendly and easy to care for. We also like the idea of supporting breeds that are threatened. 6 or 8 chickens will provide more than enough eggs for us, so it does not matter if they are all prolific egg layers.

So we are leaning towards the following ecletic mix of chickens. We would probably order two of each to increase thye chances that if we lose some we would wind up with what we want. We have some friends that would take some chickens, so we could order 25 and give away the extra chicks. We are in the Pacific Northwest and also want cold hardy breeds for the winter.

Our proposed mix would be Dorking, Sussex, Holland, Wynodotte, Americana, and a bantam of Belgium D Uccle (small white eggss for crafts). It looks like Ideal hatchery is one of the only ones that can help us with all those different breeds. We we were looking at their website, we saw a breed we were not familiar with called the Brabanter that sounded interesting.

We want birds in about June. It appears Dorkings are sold out until then anyway. Is the Brabanter a better choice as a white egg layer than Holland or Dorking? What are the flaws in our plan otherwise, and is Ideal the right hatchery?

Well, this is a rare case! I also live in the northwest (where exactly are ya?) and own a large parcel of land for my chickens, and must say that if you want something hardy, friendly, and very adventurous for the land, I'd recommend Wyandottes. Ours are the toughest and go just about anywhere for food and forage. I'm actually in the process of collecting, incubating, and overall fertilizing some Wyandotte eggs with our splash colored Easter Egger. I hope to get some good sized, colored eggs out of some very tough and reliable hens! On last note, I'm giving out some chick and pullet offspring to the neighborhood, interested in birds or eggs?

Brabantars are pretty rare, and few hatcheries sell them (same with dorkings) and the chickens you do get out of them aren't much. I'd go with Wyandottes, Easter Eggers, and something else. Your choice. Our brahmas do quite well out here, but are considered dual purpose and not the absolute best layers. I like mine though - They're quirky, lay every day for me, and one in particular gives good sized eggs. She too is on my list to cross with the EE roo. (Our EE's have very large eggs.)

( Oh, and if you plan to get "Americanas" from hatchery - You're getting Easter Eggers. )

What about Faverolles, Salmon Faverolles? They are cold hardy, friendly, funny, adorable chickens. Decent layers too. I only had one of them, they are on the critical list too. I love my Wyandottes too. Check Hendersons Chicken Breed chart too, also the BYC breed chart for some info on breeds, egg color/size, hardiness and status. I would also love to have Speckled Sussex, maybe Buckeyes....CHeck around, you may be able to get some chicks in your area from breeders or BYC members. And before I forget: from WI

Welcome to BYC PM sent regarding your interest in working with breeds that are threatened. I think you will have more fun with chickens if you seek out some breeders from BYC and get an attachment to them in that way.

That is strictly my bias and of course there are many other ways to get started. No matter how you decide to proceed you will enjoy keeping birds.

And just so you know many of us are rolling on the floor laughing, because many of us with dozens of birds in our flocks started out with wanting about 6-8 birds in our yard. Fair warning they are a lot like potato chips once you start it is hard to stop

Thanks for the advice, including the PM. For the short term, we may still go the hatchery route just to get started. That allows us to get initially set up all at once. I can see that as we have more time once we retire, that it could evolve into a hobby where we would be wanting to pay more attention to how exact the breed was, where they came from, deal with roosters, and search out local sources of interesting breeds. I think we will probably go with your advice over the long haul. Thanks again. Illia, we are out on the Olympic Penninsula in Washington. In a year or two we will probably be in a spot where might be interested in eggs, especially since I expect we will lose some of our intital birds over time. The fence and hot wire for the Llama's also will keep the Coyotes out, but we do have plenty of eagles......

Wow, nice to hear that there are other BYCer's on the Peninsula! Well, we'll always have eggs. Right now we're trying out an EE/Wyandotte cross project for reliable, hardy, large and colorful egg laying chickens. In a couple months, we're getting Black Copper Marans, Ameraucanas, and possibly Jersey Giants as well as some more Turkens. Then I'll see where my projects will go. For now - My current incubated eggs, once hatched and grown, will be judged for keeping. The ones I don't care for as much or the extra roos will be given away or eaten.

fldiver97: I've always thought of Salmon Favies to be great for out here, and really beautiful. We have the similar Brahma, but Favies are on my list of ideas for our next chickens as well as a breed I love.